Tennessee is poised to become one of the nation’s strictest states in protecting child influencers, after the General Assembly passed legislation requiring parents and content creators to compensate — and in some cases exclude — minors featured in monetized social media videos.
Senate Bill 1469 passed the House 92-0 and cleared the Senate 29-2, reflecting near-unanimous bipartisan support. The bill now awaits Gov. Bill Lee’s signature. If signed, it takes effect July 1, 2026.
Under the law, children under 14 are prohibited from appearing in online videos that generate income when a creator earns at least $15,000 annually, and the child appears in at least 30 percent of that creator’s monetized content within any 30-day window. Adults who violate that prohibition face a $2,000 civil penalty per violation.
For minors between the ages of 14 and 17 who regularly appear in paid content, creators are required to deposit a portion of earnings — proportional to the child’s involvement — into a trust account. The child gains access to those funds at age 18. At that point, they may also request that videos featuring them be permanently deleted; failure to comply within 30 days can trigger civil action.
“Most of our child labor protections were really written at a time when kids were at risk of working in coal mines or in fields, and really hadn’t been updated to keep pace with our digitalized economy,” said State Sen. Page Walley (R-Bolivar), the bill’s sponsor.
House sponsor Rep. Ron Travis (R-Dayton) added: “When children are helping generate income through content creation, they deserve clear protections for their earnings, privacy, and future.”
Tennessee joins Illinois, California, Minnesota, and Utah in enacting similar protections. However, legal analysts say Tennessee’s outright ban on monetized content featuring children under 14 makes it among the strictest in the country.
